Economic and Social Reports, September 2025

There are five new articles available in today's release of Economic and Social Reports.

Immigrant nurses in Canada

Immigration has played a vital role in addressing labour shortages in Canada's healthcare sector. The article, "Immigrant nurses in Canada: Alignment between intentions and employment outcomes," jointly conducted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Statistics Canada, examines how closely the career intentions of recent immigrants who aspired to work as nurses align with their actual employment outcomes.

The study found that among applicants admitted from 2010 to 2020 at ages 18 to 54 years who intended to work as nurses, 63% were employed in nursing occupations in 2021. In contrast, 25% were either working in lower-skilled health or non-health occupations or were not employed. Having Canadian work experience before admission strongly predicted whether nurses ended up working in the jobs they intended to. In fact, 81% of immigrants with Canadian work experience secured nursing jobs, compared with 53% of those without such experience.

Among immigrants aged 18 to 54 years who were admitted from 2010 to 2020 and worked as nurses in 2021, 65% did not intend to enter the nursing profession at admission. Compared with those who intended to work as nurses, these individuals were younger at admission and more likely to have attained their highest level of education in Canada. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of immigrants' career pathways.

Yearly changes in residency status of work and study permit holders

The yearly stock of work and study permit holders is jointly determined by new arrivals to the country, transitions to permanent residency and permit extensions. A new article, entitled "Tracking yearly shifts in residency status among Canada's work and study permit holders," examines how transitions to permanent residency and permit extensions affected the stock of work and study permit holders in recent years, using year-end stock data from 2018 to 2022.

The findings show that 64% to 79% of work and study permit holders retained their non-permanent resident (NPR) status in the year following the reference year. Meanwhile, 12% to 20% did not extend their permits and 4% to 10% became permanent residents. By the third year following the reference year, 36% to 38% still held NPR status, 23% to 33% had not extended their permits and 31% to 40% had obtained permanent residency.

These results suggest that the levels of transition to permanent residency and permit extension can play a role in understanding the stock of permit holders in the short term.

The long-run evolution of business entry and exit rates in Canada

Canada's economy has undergone a profound transformation since the 1980s, marked by a significant decline in firm entry and exit rates. The study, "The long-run evolution of business entry and exit rates in Canada," examines Canadian firms' evolution using comprehensive business data from 1980 to 2021, with comparisons with the United States, Canada's primary trade partner.

The study found that from 1980 to 2021, Canada's firm entry and exit rates fell by approximately half. The entry and exit rates declined more sharply than those in the United States did before 2000, then stabilized at 12% to 13% in the late 2010s, similar to the level in the United States. A cross-country comparison shows that the United States was more severely affected by the 2009 recession, while Canada faced greater impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This comprehensive look at entry and exit rates over the study period documents declining business dynamism from changes in the firm population. Entry and exit dynamics are an important source of innovation and productivity growth in the economy, and their declines speak to challenges for improving productivity growth.

For employees with disabilities, job tenure depends on the type of disability

While persons with disabilities tend to have lower employment rates than those without disabilities, they tend to stay longer with the same employer. The study, "How long do Canadians with and without disabilities stay with their employer? A novel analysis by disability type," linked the Canadian Survey on Disability with tax data to provide nationally representative statistics on job tenure for employees with and without disabilities.

Based on 2022 data, employees with disabilities differ from employees without disabilities in characteristics that predict job tenure, such as age. By adjusting for differences in characteristics, the study found that, overall, job tenure of employees with disabilities is in line with what is expected given their age, gender and sector of employment. However, job tenure is lower than expected for employees with certain disability types, for employees with non-episodic disabilities and for employees with severe or very severe disabilities (as opposed to mild or moderate disabilities).

This study highlights the need to adjust for relevant characteristics when presenting statistics on the labour market outcomes for persons with disabilities.

Teleworkable jobs in the Greater Toronto Area

Working from home (WFH) was widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although exclusively WFH is not as prevalent as it once was, hybrid work arrangements are more common now than they were prior to the pandemic. In light of this, some underused office buildings have been converted for residential use in several large cities across Canada. Amid the current housing shortage, these conversions could potentially increase the housing supply at a lower cost than that for new builds. The article, "Geography of teleworkable jobs in the greater Toronto area," uses innovative mapping methods to assess how WFH jobs are distributed across the Greater Toronto Area, Canada's largest metropolis.

The Greater Toronto Area has a large concentration of jobs that are amenable to WFH. For example, in 2021, there were well over 50,000 jobs in the financial district and downtown core of Toronto that were potentially teleworkable. In addition, there are many jobs within moderate proximity to the city centre, from High Park in the west to East Danforth, to south of Eglinton Avenue and to North York, that in principle could be done from home.

While converting office buildings to residential use is a challenging process, it is one that several Canadian cities, including Calgary and Hamilton, have started to do. This study provides the first concrete assessment of where teleworkable jobs are located and provides a framework for studying this issue in other cities and towns.